Having spent much of my life in captivity, I'm a bit ambivalent when it comes to zoos. This one, however, is filled with animals rescued from circuses and private collections. Did you know there are more privately-owned tigers in the US than exist in the wild? The animals seemed pretty happy with their new lives, and the zoo works hard to rehabilitate them back to some form of normality. What they didn't seem so happy about was the cold and fog that was shrouding Oakland yesterday.
So I'll just get on and post cute pictures of animals, including my new favourite: the Malaysian sun bear.
I arrived with a rescued animal, but they wouldn't take her.
A spoonbill!
The flamingos and the spoonbills prefer not to mix.
This is the zoo's one boy tiger, who seems fairly relaxed.
A white-handed gibbon checks himself out.
Squirrel monkeys! Among the cutest animals in the place.
A bundle of snakes.
The US obesity crisis extends to their reptiles.
A river otter put on a little swimming display for the visitors.
They had goats that you could pet!
When you're surrounded by predators, it's best to keep your head down.
A face that only a mother could love.
Giraffes!
And meerkats.
Another meerkat, because they are cool.
Stripes.
One of the elephants, who naturally enjoy the biggest enclosure.
The lioness has been taking lessons from the tiger.
A Malaysian sun bear! Pretty cute, hey? And a much nicer size than our native black bears.
They spent much of their time wrestling up a tree.
A chimpanzee does the only sensible thing on this cold morning.
Maccaws.
And then it was back to the tigers. Don't you just want to tickle him under the chin?
The girls and boy took turns in the enclosure. The one looking at the camera is called Molly! They have a pretty interesting story...
